UNCTAD partners with developing countries to address challenges and capitalize on opportunities in the areas of transport infrastructure, trade facilitation and logistics, related administrative, procedural and legal frameworks, and customs automation.

UNCTAD's work in the field of transport and trade logistics includes:

Research and analysis

Dissemination of information on recent developments

Providing advice to developing countries when formulating and implementing policies and programmes

Assisting in the development and implementation of national legal frameworks in line with international legal instruments and standards, and providing support to developing countries in the context of multilateral negotiations

Providing technical assistance, training and advanced software solutions for modernisation of Customs Administrations' clearance procedures and systems, in line with international standards and best practice

News

An EU-funded ASYCUDA project aimed to bring Bosnia and Herzegovina's customs sector in with European Union and WTO norms and standards kicked off with a meeting between UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Petko Draganov and Miro Dzakula, the Director General of the Indirect Taxation Authority (ITA) of Bosnia and Herzegovina and his team.

The globe’s longest-lasting and largest cycle of ship building finally began to slow in 2012, UNCTAD’s Review of Maritime Transport 2013 reveals, but the effects of overcapacity are still being felt. Shipping rates remained low, threatening firms’ profitability, even as the volume shipped last year increased by 4.3 per cent.

As a concrete follow-up to an UNCTAD expert meeting, a multidisciplinary academic paper entitled “A note on climate change adaptation for seaports: a challenge for global ports, a challenge for global society” has been published.​